PRACTICAL ACTION
SUSTAINABILITY
Practical Action is an international
development charity that helps some of the
world’s poorest communities to engineer and
sustain their own long-term development.
Here, the organisation’s Director of Policy
and Programmes, Andrew Scott, explains
how they go about their work, and gives
examples of how simple technologies can
make profound, life-changing impacts.
Practical Action was founded
in 1966, as the Intermediate
Technology Development
Group, by the radical economist
Dr EF Schumacher to prove
that his philosophy of ‘small is
beautiful’ could bring real and
sustainable improvements to
people’s lives. He believed the
best way to tackle poverty in
deprived areas was not with
capital-intensive aid, but to find
out what people already have
and to build on those assets in
order to maximise their resources.
Today, Practical Action’s
programmes have four main
themes: helping to reduce
vulnerability following natural
and man-made disasters;
enhancing livelihoods through
improved methods of production,
processes and marketing;
providing access to basic services
such as water, sanitation, housing
and energy; and showing how
new science-based technologies
can change people’s day-to-day
lives for the better.
We promote ourselves
locally, and receive enquiries
for help from a variety of
sources, including individuals,
communities or community
groups, and requests arrive
by e-mail, telephone or wordof-mouth. We also work
in partnership with other
organisations, with government
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PRACTICAL
ACTION
departments, international NGOs
or local civil society organisations.
The technologies we
apply are often in remote
communities in Africa, Asia
and South America. We can
help with housing, roads
and transportation to water
pumps, irrigation, agricultural
equipment, animal husbandry
and the provision of energy.
Energy has proved time and
time again to be the catalyst for
change. One of the mainstays
of our work has been the
development of small-scale
stand-alone renewable energy
solutions – based on water, sun,
wind or waste products.
Water power
in the Andes
The lack of energy supplies in
rural areas is a chronic problem.
There are 1.5 billion people
in developing countries who
have no access to electricity.
Rural electrification through
conventional means such as grid
connection or diesel generators
is costly but where there are
supplies of water these can be
utilised for energy production
then solutions can be found.
We have been in Peru for
25 years. The Andean village of
Tamborapa (population 1,200) is
one of a number of remote rural
Women carrying transmission wire needed to build a wind turbine in Patla
Village, Phalamkhani, Nepal. The electricity generated by their turbine
provides a clean alternative to kerosene. It enables children to study in the
evenings and people to cook meals by electric light © Practical Action
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PRACTICAL ACTION
SUSTAINABILITY
communities where we have
made a concerted effort – and are
now supported by the Peruvian
Government – to install and run
micro-hydro schemes, harnessing
the power of water from fastflowing mountain rivers. More
than 50 schemes have been
installed, providing electricity
to over 10,000 families. Our
intention is to double the number
of schemes in the next decade.
Micro-hydro power is the
small-scale harnessing of energy
from falling water, such as steep
mountain rivers. Using this
renewable, indigenous, nonpolluting resource, micro-hydro
plants can generate power for
homes, hospitals, schools and
workshops. Practical Action
Settling basin
Aqueduct
Forebay tank
Channel
Intake weir
Penstock
Hydro-powered workshop
Power house
containing turbine
Figure 1. For most micro-hydro schemes, water is collected from a main watercourse via a simple intake, settling basin
and channel to a forebay tank that sifts out sand and small pebbles before directing it via a penstock pipe leading
steeply down to a powerhouse. There, a turbine can turn the potential energy of the water to kinetic energy, which the
generator converts into electricity. Power is produced 24-hours a day, but the flow can be manually or electronically
regulated according to demand.
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promotes small-scale hydro
schemes that generate up to
500 kilowatts of power.
Where such schemes have
developed, Practical Action has
used a small business approach to
help communities manage their
micro-hydro schemes. Schemes
have a manager and operator
who are trained to run and
maintain the plant, collect agreed
tariffs, repay capital loans and
report to a village committee.
Electricity has made a huge
difference in Tamborapa, reducing
the cost of lighting fourfold,
halting the exodus of villagers
going to seek work, and helping
small businesses start up and
flourish. Mechanisation has
relieved labour-intensive tasks
such as grain-milling; vaccines
can be kept cold in the fridges of
health centres; and the internet is
helping students study and access
information from the wider world.
The communities installing and
utilising micro-hydro schemes
in the high Andes have now
created cottage industries and
are contributing to the economic
development of the entire region.
Increasing
food resources
Practical Action has a base
in Bangladesh where one
fifth of the country is flooded
every year, affecting millions
of people. The charity helps
build up the technical skills of
communities there in order to
protect them from the worst
effects of annual flooding.
The floating garden is just
one approach that can be used
to improve the food production
of people living and working in
The lessons learned
and successes from
our projects are
communicated
to global decision
makers as well as
fellow development
practitioners.
Bangladesh. Other approaches
include small-scale fish farming,
pigeon rearing, and duck rearing.
Farming methods have to be
suitable for small-scale farmers
without the need for large
financial investment.
During the monsoon
season, much of the land in the
Gaibandha district of Bangladesh
is covered by water, making it
impossible to grow crops. Local
people have been introduced
to a new cultivation technique,
using a raft made from water
hyacinth called a floating garden.
This enables poor people to grow
vegetables to feed their families
during the floods.
Water hyacinth is a common
weed in the river and can be
collected and knotted together
by hand to build a simple raft
eight metres long and one metre
wide, which is then covered with
soil and cow dung, and sowed
with vegetable seed. Summer
and winter vegetables such as
gourd, okra and leafy vegetables
are grown on the raft as it floats
on the flooded river. A new raft
needs to be built every year
but the old one can be used as
fertiliser during the dry season.
The floating gardens provide
food for people even during
the annual ‘monga’ (period of
food shortages) and they can
also provide a source of income
through sale of any surplus in
the market. They are suitable for
farmers who need to diversify
from traditional land use, and,
as the rafts can be moved
from place to place, they are
also useful for those who have
temporarily or permanently lost
their homes and land.
Biogas production
In Sri Lanka, three quarters
of the population have
access to electricity – though
firewood and kerosene are the
main energy sources for the
majority of the country’s rural
communities (85%). With fuel
wood becoming increasingly
expensive and also scarce in
some parts of Sri Lanka, there
is a need to look for alternative
cooking fuel. Cow manure
and biogas technology provide
a free, sustainable source of
energy all year round and a
better income for farmers.
On-farm biogas plants collect
cow dung from specially
adapted cattle sheds, mix the
result with water and channel
it into fermentation pits. The
gas (of which 65% is methane)
produced as a by-product of this
fermentation and is collected
in a simple storage tank from
where it is piped directly into the
farmer’s home to provide energy
for cooking, laundry and lighting.
Practical Action has trained
local builders to construct
biogas digesters, leading to the
introduction of over 60 new
biogas schemes meeting 75%
of household cooking needs.
Incomes have risen in these areas
as women and girls are freed
from an average of two and a
half hours a day of domestic
labour (fuel collection, cleaning
smoke-blackened utensils and
disposing of animal waste), using
There is little food in the markets during the monsoon season, as few people can grow crops, so vegetables are in great
demand. By cultivating seedlings in the floating gardens people are able to plant them earlier in the year and get a better
harvest. After the end of the monsoon season, the old rafts can be used as compost to grow crops in the dry season
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PRACTICAL ACTION
SUSTAINABILITY
5” diameter pulley
6x7 strand
MS square pipe
4”
MS square pipe
MS 4” latch for
opening/locking
carriage
2’-0”
1”
3’-0
”
An upper station of a gravity ropeway installed in Janagaon, Nepal.
Janagaon is one of six communities which have benefitted from this
goods-transportation ropeway. The proven technique can now be copied
elsewhere from a free technical brief available online.
Practical Answers
Last year, the Practical Answers section of the charity’s website
responded to 6,292 technical enquiries from 92 countries.
This service is able to call on the expertise of several hundred
professionals in technical, economic and sociological disciplines
worldwide to help formulate the answers to enquiries. The
written materials on the website are much in demand with
285,754 downloads of technical materials from 172 countries.
‘Gravity ropeways’ is one of 400 such technical briefs available
free online. In Nepal, getting crops to market can be exhausting
and dangerous – generally mules, women and children carry these
heavy loads on their backs down treacherous dirt tracks. When it
rains, or after a landslide, this becomes impossible.
The gravity ropeway is an inexpensive and simple means of
transportation. It operates by gravitational force without the use
of external power. The gravity ropeway consists of two trolleys
rolling over support tracks attached to a control cable in the
middle which moves in a traditional flywheel system. When the
loaded trolley at the up-station is pulled downward by the force
of gravity, the other trolley at the bottom-station is pulled up
automatically by means of the control cable.
The goods coming downward from the top-station need to
be three times as heavy as the load going up from the down
station. The sliding down of the trolley and its speed depends
on the angle of elevation made by the cables installed with the
horizontal ground.
A flywheel with bearing and bracket is used as a brake to
control the landing speed of the trolley at the bottom-station.
Communication between top and bottom stations is done by
tapping the wire rope. The operator at the down-station when
alerted then applies the handbrake to control the flywheel.
Six communities in Nepal, together with Practical Action, have
found a surprisingly simple answer that is transforming their lives.
It used to take two people over three hours to carry a 120 kg load
of apples 1.3 km down a steep mountain path, just the first part of
the gruelling journey to market. Now, with a gravity ropeway, the
crop takes less than five minutes to cover the same distance.
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”
2’-0
FIGURe 1: TROLLEY
GUIDE PULLEY
FIGURe 2: BRAKE SYSTEM
Upward for wheel operation
Wooden
handle
6” M S bolt
6”
Downward for
applying brake
Holes for
bolts
4.5” MS Bolt
MS metal plate
MS metal shaft for
placing wooden
handle
Figures 2 and 3: Diagrams from a technical brief showing how to construct a
trolley guide pulley and a braking system for gravity ropeways. The system
uses two linked trolleys, on pulleys, run on separate 10 mm diameter steel
wires suspended from towers. The trolleys’ progress is controlled by another,
8mm wire, looped over a flywheel. A wooden drum brake, with bearing and
bracket, governs their speed.
The braking system reflects the diagram in figure 3. When the lever on the
right is pulled back it will pivot on the 6” bolt and cause the wooden block
above the wheel to drop down, thus applying pressure and slowing the
wheel speed.
An input tank of a biogas digester being installed in Sri Lanka. The resultant biogas provides a clean cooking and lighting
fuel that can be produced on a scale varying from a small household system to a large commercial plant of several
thousand cubic metres.
the time instead for new incomegenerating activities. Work on
setting standards for biogas
systems in Sri Lanka is now
underway in partnership with the
Lanka Biogas Association.
Dispensing
technical
knowledge
During 2009, we were running
111 projects in 13 countries,
with a total budget of about
£22 million. Together with our
technical briefs and manuals,
used by engineers abroad and
local communities, we estimate
that we helped more than
500,000 people last year by
empowering them to deploy
technologies that gave them
greater control over their lives
and livelihoods (see Practical
Answers box).
Practical Action employs
around 700 people worldwide
with many of our projects based
in Bangladesh, Kenya, Peru,
Nepal, Sri Lanka, Sudan and
Zimbabwe. Each overseas office
contains a mix of engineers,
technicians, social scientists and
community mobilisers – any
or all of whom may play a role,
according to the individual
requirements of each project.
In all the countries where
we work the project costs are
often met in part at least, by
the local community. Our own
funding comes from donations
by the British public and a variety
of organisations, including the
Department for International
Development and the
European Union. We can
facilitate innovative financial
mechanisms to ensure lowinterest loans, and at the same
time provide whatever education
and training are needed to create
an infrastructure that can fix
problems, manufacture spare
parts and, importantly, boost
production and market products.
The lessons learned and
successes from our projects
are communicated to global
decision makers as well as fellow
development practitioners. By
adapting existing technologies,
we help ensure that success in
one country can form a template
for success in another. Practical
Action uses its credibility to
inform, influence and encourage
project partners to enter into
a dialogue for change, which
helps give local people a voice
at national level. As a result,
local concerns on such daily
issues as good urban planning,
proper shelter and fair taxation
can be heard and acted upon.
The tools and solutions we
provide access to may be simple
but they can provide long-term,
appropriate and practical help
when placed in the hands of local
people. These skilled people
can then shape technology and
control it for themselves.
For more information:
www.practicalaction.org.uk
BIOGRAPHY – Andrew Scott
Andrew Scott has worked for Practical Action for more than
twenty-five years. His own work and writing has focused on
concepts relating to science and technology and development,
small enterprises and the environment, adaptation to climate
change, and the development impacts of modern new
technologies. He has worked in Botswana, Kenya, Zimbabwe,
Malawi, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal and Peru.
The author would like to thank mechanical engineer Teo Sanchez and
writer Gary Atkins for their help with this article
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